Talk:Panic attack
I had my first panic attack while driving with my wife and children along a motorway between Glasgow and Edinburgh in August, 1981. I was aged 49. It struck with total suddenness. My arms suddenly felt incapable of controlling the car and I pulled on to the hard shoulder. I told my wife I felt very strange. I went into a field and lay down to die. A minute or two later my eldest son came over to me and I told him I was about to die. I eventually struggled back to the car and lay down on the back seat. My wife took over the driving. We were on holiday from Northern Ireland and the rest of the holiday for me was dominated by a fear of this horrible experience. At that time I had never heard of a panic attack, and I hadn't the slightest idea what had happened to me. What happened over the next few weeks changed my life. I gradually learned about panic attacks and took valium after a visit to the doctor. He talked about anxiety and it was attributed to tension caused by exposure to horrendous terrorist activity in Belfast where I worked as Senior Housing Officer for Belfast in the City Hall. I had first hand experience of terrorism, so it was assumed that had caused an anxiety state and triggered a panic attack. In actual fact, however, I never had been conscious of any fear at work. I had become accustomed to major explosions, murders, hooded terrorists, etc., and had actually been threatened at gun point. None of that had bothered me too much because I had simply got used to it! It was years later that we were on holiday in Scotland...... Over the many years since 1981, I have had experience of panic attacks on many occasions and done a considerable amount of reading on the subject. There have been periods of years during which I have not had a single panic attack, and there have been periods (lasting several weeks) when the attacks and their attendant depressions have caused me indescribable misery. At the beginning of October this year, I was working happily on my model railway in the garage. Suddenly I felt my legs were giving way under me and I went into the house, where I felt unstable and very distressed because it was so long since I had had a real panic attack. During the previous ten years I had had perhaps half a dozen "thirty second" attacks which had left nothing disturbing in their wake, but this time it was different. Over the nine weeks since then I have continued to experience varying degrees of "instability" and have studied my state each day. I have found that when I think about it, it is worse than when I don't think about it! But it has not completely gone away, and I think it must be a sort of "background panic" for want of a better term. Of course I am now an old man (79) so perhaps it is just old age, but because it varies so much I cannot see it as a degenerative condition. When I drive the car I am totally comfortable: but when I get out I have to say to myself 'I am going to be absolutely normal' and I am!! There is a very very close relationship between the mind and the body here. And I have noticed that the mornings are worse than later in the day, and the more I walk, the steadier I feel. Perhaps someone may find my experience of interest. I would very much like to hear from any fellow-sufferer. 17:25, December 9, 2011 (UTC)WESLEY WEIR, BANGOR.